Haunted
by Mistystarshine
Summary: After the wall went down everyone lost their powers. But that didn't mean things would remain simple, not for Diana, who ended up gaining to ability to see and communicate with the dead. Only she's no 'Ghost Whisperer' and has no plans on helping people pass on or doing anything but ignore it. However, literal ghosts from the past might pose a threat to this plan.


**AN: What? Mistystarshine is starting **_**another**_** fanfic? Is she insane? The answers to those questions are yes, and quite possibly. I actually have a whole que of fics to write but made myself promise not to work on more than three at any given time, the exception being for things like National Novel Writing month, which is this month. (I couldn't choose between ideas and ended up working on two things. Oops.) Anyway, this entire fanfic is a gift for one Inquisitivefeminist. :3 I intend on getting another chapter of Silence up before the weekend, but I've been needing to post this for a while. Also, while this is post-FAYZ and lots of people that died in the last book died in here as well it doesn't exactly have spoilers for Light, as I'm disregarding it for the most part. (Partly because I've been spoiled but haven't actually read it yet. Oops.) Also, the pairings in here will be a surprise for the most part, except for Sastrid and that one I seem to inevitably end up writing when doing Gone(Caina), OTP and all. So… one or two. One or two pairings will be a surprise, this fic isn't that shippy. Also, this story takes some inspiration from the 'Ghost and the Goth' series, mainly the canon for ghosts and those that can see them. However, there are certain elements that will be apparent later that come purely from my head. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I, Mistystarshine, do not own Gone or the characters.**

**~.~.~.~.~.~**

Many people had been affected after the FAYZ in one way or another. No, that wasn't right, _everyone_ had been affected. Not a single soul had escaped from that hellhole unscathed, and sometimes the effects were so bad that people wondered if the ones that made it out were the lucky ones after all. Several survivors had committed suicide, a handful or two had to be locked up and observed around the clock, she had even heard that while some had physically made it out they were in a comatose state. But it was generally agreed upon by most that of the survivors that had been released back into society Diana Ladris was the worst off.

She couldn't help but feel numb as she gazed up at the ceiling, or where she knew the ceiling was as her room was currently pitch black, and thought about this. Schizophrenic, that was what the doctors had called her. It wasn't a diagnosis without reason, of course. After all, she had been caught staring at and talking to people that weren't there, wondering why no one else could see them, and on several occasions had broken down and cried for them all to 'go away'. A rueful smile crossed her face at this. Yes, she had given them quite a few reasons to deem her insane. She had given the general population plenty of reason to avoid her, you know, aside from having lived in the FAYZ for over a year.

Really she was surprised that anyone still talked to her at all. Of course, that surprise lessened slightly when she considered that it was Sam and Astrid that were the exception to this. Still the 'big heros', even after the FAYZ. Taking in the traumatized and scarred girl, allowing her to live with them no matter how unnerving she might be at times. Oh, she was grateful for it, the idea of being a hobo didn't appeal to her very much at all. So she tried to act put together for their sake, often listening to music to block out the 'voices', pretending not to see things that were all too real for her, and trying her best to make sure they didn't know that she didn't take the pills that the doctor's prescribed for her. By now she knew all too well that they wouldn't do any help. Sometimes she even thought that they might know as well, that maybe they just hadn't said anything. Another thing for her to be grateful to them for. While she did want to be left alone by a great many people she still didn't want to be _completely_ alone.

It was enough that the person she wanted to see most was long gone.

As soon as thoughts of him began to enter her head Diana pushed them out, sitting upright in bed and turning on the little lamp on her bedside table. In an attempt to distract herself she pulled back the curtain slightly and peeked out her window. There was one person standing on the street bellow, sort of lurking beside a lamp. The person, a woman that appeared to be in her thirties, would be a spectacle to most people. Long brown hair in dreadlocks, all out sixties flower-child clothes, oh, and a bullet hole going through her head. While she couldn't see it from here she had passed, and tried to ignore, the woman enough time to know it was there. Thankfully there wasn't anyone else who would be seeing that woman.

That woman who wore clothes that looked like they were from the sixties because it was probably the sixties when she got shot. That woman who probably hadn't been alive for a _very_ long time.

After the FAYZ everyone's powers left them, and Diana could no longer read how many 'bars' a person had. But something else had fallen upon her, something that had nothing to do with the FAYZ, or maybe it did, maybe it had been lying dormant inside her for a long time and it was the falling of the dome that had trigged it. Either way, the fact remained that Diana Ladris could see the dead.

But not him, she had not seen him and refused to believe she ever would. He wouldn't willingly stay lurking about on earth, not when he could go to wherever it was that the non-lurkers went. Besides, even if he was ghosting about somewhere he probably would have come to pester her by now. God knew that if he was still around he wouldn't be willing to leave her alone, not even in the afterlife.

He wouldn't be coming though. She refused to believe that he was coming. Caine Soren was gone.

Without a word Diana laid back down and turned off the light.

**~.~.~.~.~.~**

"I told you he'd be back," trilled the smug voice of his eternal punishment.

It was an annoying voice that he'd thought he'd heard the last of when a whip-handed psychopath fed him to a pack of coyotes that responded, "I _knew_ that, it's not like you predicted the coming of the next messiah."

A snort before, "don't say that around him, you know how he is. He might start getting ideas, name himself King of the Dead."

Part of him wanted to just lay there and refuse to move. Maybe they'd think that he'd somehow managed to die again, maybe they'd get the hint and just bugger off. However, that glorious little thing called an ego wouldn't let him stay silent at that last comment. Caine opened his eyes and moved to stand up, settling a glare on the forms of Brianna and Howard. "Well," he found himself growling, "at least I'm _trying_ to get out of here."

Howard just shrugged at this, apparently not caring that he was just as stuck in the area that used to be the FAYZ as he was. Well, technically he could leave the area, but it wouldn't last long. Every day at the exact moment that he had died he would find himself appearing in the place he had died, the middle of the desert, near the old ghost town. A similar thing would happen to Howard, only he appeared where he had been killed and eaten. And Brianna… Brianna just pissed him off at this point.

With a laugh the girl formally known as 'The Breeze' bragged, "oh, I _can_ get out, I can wander anywhere I please without pesky time limits. But why do that when it's so much more fun to keep you company?" That's right, she didn't black out and then appear at her place of death the moment she died. No, Brianna was a proper, full-strength ghost, able to go wherever she wanted whenever she wanted. She just _chose_ to annoy him. Although, sometimes he couldn't help but wonder if she was afraid to leave the familiar territory and the few fellow deceased she knew. He didn't care most of the time though, to be perfectly honest. If he was going to be stuck watching life move on around him he'd rather be watching people, living people, he knows and possibly cares about Of course he doubted he'd be able to do that for long, chances were it might just make him more angry. But he couldn't just keep wandering what used to be the FAYZ, if he did he was sure the little sanity he had left would leave him.

He was pulled out of his glaring by the annoying redhead continuing to ask, "anyway, how far did you get this time?"

A frown crossed his face as he replied, "out of state, not sure how far though. Grabbed a bus." His explanation was short and clipped, largely because of his displeasure. It was the farthest he'd ever gotten and he'd still been pulled back, which seemed to put an end to the hope that distance might be the key. When he'd discovered that ghosts could still use transportation if they managed to get in a car, bus, or other type of vehicle he couldn't help but be excited. It didn't matter that he had no control over where he was going or that no one living could see him, just that he got far away. Surely if he got far enough he wouldn't be pulled back.

Apparently not.

Catching on to this train of thought Howard remarked, "so you're screwed then."

In that moment Caine wanted nothing more than to be alive and back in the FAYZ, even if it would just so he could toss Howard into a wall. But unfortunately it seemed that the dead did not retain their powers and, not being in the mood to argue with the little rat and doubtlessly amusing him, he settled for glaring at him and walking away.


End file.
